Philip Humber Almost Pitched Game 163 For Mets
By Mike Silva ~ April 22nd, 2012. Filed under: New York Mets.
Congrats to Philip Humber who pitched the 21st perfect game in MLB history.
The former Met is more known here for his meltdown against Washington when he blew a 5-0 lead in Game 158 during the collapse in September of 2007.
After years of injuries and poor performance, Humber put up a very solid 2011 with the White Sox when he went 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA. Humber took a no-hitter into the 7th inning against the Yankees last season until Alex Rodriguez broke it up with a single.
After that game I wrote a short piece in which I passed along some information about how Humber would have pitched a play-in game against the Phillies in ’07.
I was recently talking to a member of that team and reminiscing about the lost season. During the conversation I was told the Mets pitching was in such trouble that Humber would have started the one game playoff in Philadelphia if the season ended in a tie. After 162 games the Mets were going to ask a kid with exactly one major league start to bring them to the postseason. That has 7-0 Phillies after one inning written all over it. Of course, it’s possible he comes up big and writes another amazing chapter in Mets history. Somehow the way 2007 went the latter seems unlikely.
The real issue that September was that Pedro Martinez could not pitch on normal rest so it threw the rotation into disarray. The Mets lacked pitching depth (sounds familiar?), so the option was either Brian Lawrence or Humber.
Too bad Humber couldn’t have saved that perfect magic for that 2007 fall night.
April 22nd, 2012 at 8:53 pm
Anybody else notice this guy’s uniform number?
April 22nd, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Wow that’s irony! #41 for Tom Seaver!